As the popularity of the internet increases, there is a commensurate increase in the need to deliver content over large distances through congested, slow internet connections. This problem is particularly critical for files that must be delivered in a real time or near real time sequence, such as audio and video files, and for files that must be delivered at the same time to a multiplicity of places.
Additionally, there is a convergence of television/radio broadcast and internet data transmission, using streaming. The dividing line between computer technology and television/radio broadcast is rapidly diminishing. “Streaming” refers to transmitting video and audio information via the internet to personal computers in the home and office environment such that the information may be viewed or heard, or both, as it is being received. Currently, over 100,000 websites and over 60% of top entertainment, sports and news sites stream content through the internet.
The streaming experience in the internet, however, generally has been a disappointment for viewers until now. Choppy, postage-stamp sized images, and bad buffering due to the congestion and packet loss of land-based internet networks have been major obstacles for streaming multimedia through the internet. Early attempts at streaming video and audio have been marred by low bandwidth internet connections and network congestion. For example, the average stream traverses 20 hops through loosely managed public peering points before reaching end users. Congestion on the internet routers delays delivery of streaming media to the final destination, resulting in choppy, disjointed video.
Recent advances in last mile service providers have made high speed internet access available to the general public through the use of digital subscriber line (DSL), ISDN, cable modem and satellite modem technology. As the technology becomes more affordable and mature, most internet access can be expected to be high speed solving the low bandwidth problem of internet connections by internet users. However, the network congestion problem has not been improved as expected because internet backbone routing systems have not caught up with the drastic increase of internet traffic.